As many of you know, I hale from a little village called Hammon Oklahoma. It’s also called “The Red Moon Agency” a sub-agency of the Darlington Agency, and named after Chief Red Moon. My people are very traditional in every sense of the word. We call this “The Last Stronghold” for we are still under attack in many ways.. It’s the dark side of tribal existence and I know other fellow Native’s know what I’m talking about, it’s our sad secret.
But there are innocent victims of this war of attrition and ambivalence and that’s the 40 or so senior citizens of my village. Well, to cut to the chase, I’ve been personally paying for all my seniors’ meals for the last 6 months. I adopted all the elderly of my village. So they are all my grandmothers and grandfathers. Somehow in the matrix of politics our center has been without funding and my elders have gone without their daily meals. In most cases these elderly people only get one hot meal a day since our village is so impoverished.
I only discovered this situation when my aunt, who is on a walker, was making her way to another relatives home one day. I asked my aunty why she was “strolling” down the street. She would not tell me at first but then she broke down and told me. You have to realize these elderly people are a very proud people. In fact, they are the direct descendants of the survivors of the Sand Creek Massacre, conducted by Chivington and ultimately the Washita Massacre conducted by Custer who was sent to finish us off. Sadly Chief Black Kettle was finally killed and so were most of my ancestors.
My aunt was ashamed to tell me that they have not received hot meals for months. And that all our elderly were going from house to house getting meals. That was for the fortunate ones who were not invalid and bed ridden. I could not understand why she was ashamed to tell me though. So to retain their dignity, I adopted all our seniors and have been paying out of pocket for the last 6 months. Well, I’ve tapped into my production development funds now and I simply can’t afford to pay much more, so I need your help.
Since the Senior Center in Hammon is a multi-racial one. I’ve decided to adopt the non-Natives who depend on these hot meals as well. Why?? That’s a no brainer eh. The non-Natives are the descendants of the good White folks at Fort Supply and other places who hide my people from Custer’s troops who were scouring the countryside executing the stragglers. Remember “knits make lice” and Custer cutting out babies from the mothers womb? It was a most brutal part of history that does not seem to make all the history books. Custer also executed White people who harbored any Natives, another piece of dark history. It might not be a big disaster but to us, “It’s our Holocaust”. If it were not for these beautiful White folks who truly were heroes in our eyes, we would not be here. So I must honor them and their ancestors as well.
I’ve contacted the City Manager of Hammon, Shirley Walker, a very nice and caring non-Native woman. I told her of my plan to generate funding for the Senior Center in our village since this is in her jurisdiction. She told me she has the tax info for others who would adopt our elderly, the “502. Whatever”
So if you can, give me a hand with this situation.
I named the fund after my family:
WHITE EAGLE-BULLCOMING UP SENIORS FUND
BOX 218
HAMMON, OKLAHOMA
73650
ATTENTION:
SHIRLEY WALKER, City Manager
580.473.2281
Just tell Shirley you heard about it from “That Big Injun Dude”
Believe me, she will know who you're talking about since I champion many other causes for my people.
It’s not a big village but it’s all I have and to us it’s a catastrophe of cataclysmic proportions. We love and honor our seniors and basically, our village is very impoverished. And well, my people look to me for solutions and this is what I came up with. I just don’t have enough money to pull it off anymore or I would not ask you in the first place. Maybe after I win an Oscar I’ll have the dough-ray-me, but for now its commode cheese and green beans for this film maker.
Buffalohair
_________________
Creativity is the byproduct of a fertile mind
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